BBC: iPlayer for Mac in 2008, but still needs Mac-native DRM

The BBC says that it's committed to bringing its iPlayer video service to the …

The BBC has reiterated its plans to offer its iPlayer service that lets users download current video of BBC programs. The BBC's Mark Thompson posted on the BBC Internet Blog yesterday that the company was committed to offering a Mac-native version of the player by the end of 2008, which is currently still Windows-only (Mac users can stream through a Flash version of the player, but not download). "[C]ontrary to what some believe—the BBC actually works hard to provide internet services on a "platform agnostic" basis," he wrote.

However, that goal won't be met until the BBC can find some DRM solution to use on the Mac that will work similarly to the DRM it uses under Windows. "In particular, the BBC's ability to secure agreements with major rights holders like PACT was conditional on our implementing DRM to protect the commercial value of their programmes," Thompson said.

Don't be too angry at the BBC yet—this is the exact same thing we've heard from other online video services, such as Netflix. Without a single Mac-native DRM scheme—aside from Apple's FairPlay that the company downright refuses to license out—these services' hands are tied when it comes to dealing with the content owners.

Clearly, there's a need for someone else to develop a Mac-native DRM scheme that can be licensed out to everyone else so that we can bring this kind of content to the Mac. Without it, our favorite platform will continue to have some obvious disadvantages when it comes to the media consumption habits of the general public (outside of iTunes, obviously). Of course, we could simply wait it out and hope that video content providers see the light like music labels have and drop DRM, but that may not be for a while.

Jacqui Cheng
Jacqui is an Editor at Large at Ars Technica, where she has spent the last eight years writing about Apple culture, gadgets, social networking, privacy, and more. Emailjacqui@arstechnica.com//Twitter@eJacqui